Strength Found in Crossroad
by TheCrazyJackalope
Summary: Magic and Espers never really got along, do they? Mikoto Misaka, after falling into the fabled Mount Ebott, finds herself amongst monsters composed of magic and curious creatures inhabiting beneath the earth. She wants to get out of the rabbit hole, but she also wants everyone else to come with her.


**Falling Flowers**

* * *

Sunrises are, more often than not, breathtaking just from the ground. Seeing it just peeking over the clouds, assisting the sky in transforming from a deep, dark navy blue in color to a peach-slash-salmon canopy, with thick and thin clouds alike having their tops shining scarlet from the rising sunlight; people who had the luck to view the spectacle in their life had collectively agreed it was one of the greatest gifts God had ever given to humanity.

And at precisely 5:47 a.m., Japan Standard Time, Kuroko Shirai has been inspired by the sunrise to grope, molest, kiss, and spoon her roommate as the day started.

"Onee-sama~," Kuroko sang delicately, unbuckling her seatbelt to situate herself above the unwary roommate, "Rise and shine, my sleeping beauty, for the sunrise just outside might rival your shockingly beautiful glow~."

This is it, homestretch that's only about 3 inches apart! This is it, this is it, this is it—

 _ **THWACK!**_

Just before their lips could come into contact, an electrically charged fist rocketed straight into the Teleporter's kisser, knocking her over their uncaring fellow students and to the other side of the cabin, landing on the lap of annoyed Tokiwadai Espers.

"Can you, for once, respect my needs for personal space and rest?!" Mikoto Misaka roared from her side of the cabin, "I only got, like, three hours of sleep before we wake up for the dumb field trip to the Americas to, quote-unquote, _'examine the local and folk history of the world's biggest superpower'_! I wanna enjoy the trip, and if I wanna enjoy the trip, I want at least six hours of rest!"

The Electromaster rolled over to face the cabin's wall grumpily, muttering, "Geez, can a girl get some personal space that's not invaded by males and females every two hours?"

"Onee-sama," Kuroko uttered from the laps of the Tokiwadai students, "I, Kuroko Shirai, will obey your wishes and allow you rest."

"Shirai, can you please do us a favor and get off our lap?" Mitsuko Kongou requested kindly, albeit with faint undertones of annoyance, "Me, Wannai and Awatsuki wish to observe this beautiful dawn and we don't want a huge weight on our lap take away our experience."

"OK, just give me a moment."

* * *

Five hours afterward, the plane finally landed within the United States of America. As the students of Tokiwadai Middle School emptied themselves out from the aircraft out into the airport, Mikoto shivered and pulled her Gekota-patterned blanket tighter around her body, commenting, "Why do American airports have to be so cool and drafty all the time? I can almost see my breath with this low of a temperature."

"Onee-sama, don't exaggerate, it's only," Kuroko calculated mentally, "roughly 24 degrees Celsius. Besides, if you ever wish to feel more warmth, feel free to cuddle up to me all you want."

The pigtailed girl smiled perversely and started snake her hand underneath Mikoto's blanket and into her clothes, "And I'll be happy to share my body heat with you—"

Mikoto pushed the invading Kuroko away from her in annoyance, "Moron, we're in a public place here! Honestly, your near lack of public self-consciousness astounds me sometime."

The troupe of middle-school age girls marched down and out the airport, with their possessions and luggage in their hand. They boarded a large silver coach and the vehicle sputtered to life, driving them off to a close by hotel. Mikoto, still feeling woozy and exhausted from the plane ride, had only seen everything as a silent film, barely giving anything her thoughts until Kuroko literally dragged her by the arm and pulled her into their hotel room.

"Oh, did we have our hotel room already?" Mikoto blinked blearily, "Felt like I just blinked and we just teleported here."

"Sadly, we still can't use our powers unless necessary. Dorm rules still apply here." Kuroko sighed.

Mikoto gave a breathy groan and tossed her suitcase onto her bed, and immediately tossed herself onto her bed soon afterward. Kuroko gained a perverted gleam in her eyes, but before she could come close to touch Mikoto, said girl immediately expelled an electric shock onto Kuroko, grumbling, "Sleep now, pervo stuff later."

* * *

Mikoto glanced out from their coach in moderate intrigue, eyes registering new, unfamiliar landscapes as the vehicle speed past them to their destined locations. After a mellow and subdued breakfast in the hotel's dining room, a group consisting of randomly picked students were chosen to visit the first location on their itinerary, a curious mountain that's steeped in decades of folklore and legend; Mount Ebott, a curious mountain that's rumored to be sealing a society of paranormal beings.

Mikoto couldn't help but envision that stupid spiky-haired boy who wouldn't stop butting in to play hero whenever the word paranormal cropped up in discussions and talks. He always has this tendency to run into situations when it was about to hit its climax with impeccable timing, saving everyone with his mysterious—esoteric, even—right hand.

But she couldn't help but feel annoyed and vexed whenever he ran into her presence. Most of the time, the scenarios involving him often played out as him minding his own business, Mikoto running in on him as he laments over the loss of his groceries, her challenging him to a duel, and then Mikoto spending the better part of an hour chasing him, hurling lightning bolts that contain hundreds of thousands of volts of electricity at the poor, misfortunate boy who dared to label her as childish.

She did, however, considered changing her views on Touma when he had helped end the cruel experiment that involved over 20,000 clones made of her DNA getting mercilessly slaughtered for the sake of advancing the first-ranked Level 5 Esper to the much sought after Level 6. And afterward, she didn't actively run after the misfortunate boy just for the sake of her ego anymore, though Mikoto still felt strong emotions of irritation and embarrassment whenever the two kept crossing paths, so that didn't change much.

The gradual decrease in velocity managed to signal to the fourteen-year-old that the coach is drawing to a stop. Mikoto snapped herself free of her reminiscing and stared outwards from her window. A great mountain, covered in greenery, stationed a mile or so away from their current position, and the base of the mount was covered with trees and shrubbery that thinned out just to the side of the road they were on.

The students left the coach after their chaperone gave them all a short lecture on the location's history and warnings to not stray more than a few meters away from her. Mikoto couldn't help but stare out at Mount Ebott, partially transfixed by how large, imposing and, oddly, occultish it looked. She felt a mild sensation of buzzing at the back of her head as she stared at it, and it intensified slightly when she looked at...the ground?

No, it came _under_ the ground, and Mikoto can sense minor buzzing underneath the already existing sensation, much like little drops of condensed water vapors collected underneath a plastic wrap. It was faint, extremely so, and just the tiniest conflicting stream of thoughts would leave her unable to sense it anymore.

"Misaka! We're going to go on a hike around the forest soon!" Mitsuko called from the foot of the forest, slinging her bag over her shoulder with her two lackeys by her side doing the same. Mikoto blinked, almost forgetting where she was.

"Oh, right." Mikoto murmured to herself, "Forgot..."

The Level 5 quickly grabbed her own bag and hurried out of the coach, slinging it over her shoulder as she regrouped with her fellow classmates. The small entourage of students then ventured into the greenery. As Mikoto quietly followed the group from the behind, silent, friendly chatter accompanied the peaceful whistling of birds, and the early autumn sun bathed the girls from above. Mikoto stared at the general direction of Mount Ebott and the curious sensation rushed through her mind again as they trekked through the forest, only this time, stronger, more intense, _painful_.

Mikoto gasped and pushed herself off of the dirt. Wait, that's not right, since when did she fell down? The Railgun kneaded at her temple uneasily—wait, that's not right either, where did the headache come from?

She stared at the retreating group in front of her, and shuffled to her feet, dusting off trace amount of dirt of her skirt and sweater as she does so. As Mikoto ventured through the woods, the sensation tugged at her again, but she tried to shake the feeling away.

It never quite leave her. Sure, it diminished in intensity, but it kept clinging onto the back of her head like a persistent spider on a thin string of spider silk; always there, no matter how much Mikoto tried to ward it off. Engaging in conversation. Admiring the passing scenery. Looking at the wildlife. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

And it came from the ground underneath the soles of her loafers, connected like a string between two tin cans.

Mikoto rubbed at her forehead tiredly, flattening out parts of her hair that had acted up with static created by her ability. Honestly, it's not like the sensation was hurting her or anything. It was more like a nagging ache more than anything, just flickering in and out constantly.

Mikoto bumped into Mitsuko by accident, sending both tumbling to the ground. Mikoto groaned, "Ugh, that's the second time today. Are you okay?"

"I'll be alright," Mitsuko sighed, "Are _you_ okay, Misaka? You seem to be kind of out of it today."

"I'm fine. Just kinda woozy from yesterday's flight I guess."

The Aero Hand user stared at Mikoto skeptically, but waved it off, "If you say so." and rejoined with her two sidekicks.

The Level 5 stared at Mount Ebott warily; they had ventured closer towards mountain than she had anticipated, now only a little under a thousand feet away from the base. The trees had also thinned out and it must have taken an hour or so to get this far near Mount Ebott, she calculated.

"We shall take an hour-long lunch break here. Don't wander off more than a few meters from the group at a time." the chaperone called. Immediately, the group spread out into small pairs and trio, systematically sprinkled all over the clearing, enjoying the early autumn scenery and the cool wind.

Mikoto quietly wandered off towards the mountain and settled herself down, as far away from the group as possible while being close enough to not alarm the chaperone as being too far away.

She pulled out a brown paper bag, containing handmade cookies, two ham sandwiches sliced in triangles, a bottle of flavored sparkling water, and a few napkins to help tidy up. Mikoto chewed on a sandwich idly, staring up at Mount Ebott.

Now that they got this close to the mountain, the curious sensation came back with a vengeance, making her feel like a computer trying to compute over a trillion calculations all at once. The buzzing came from under the ground, and Mikoto couldn't help but wonder what exactly was giving her such a migraine.

She concentrated on the buzzing sensation, and it transform into a humming noise; like a machine, but it sounded far more ancient, mystical and esoteric than any automaton was capable of sounding.

Suddenly, images of war flashed across Mikoto's mind; scarred earth stretched as far as the eye can see. Used and abandoned weapons marred the ground. Screams of terror coming from humans and inhumans alike.

And the utter feeling of sadness, despair, and determination.

Mikoto felt her body giving a jerk like she fell from the sky, and her mind pulled back from the abrupt scenes of death and war.

"W—What," Mikoto muttered to herself, barely managing to finish her sentence in a coherent manner, "Wuh? That's—"

Mikoto stared at the mountain, set off in the distance. The quiet, barely heard cries of hopelessness stirred something strong within the girl. Stronger than her Level 5 Railgun.

No one has to be trapped anymore. No one deserves to walk towards their doomed fate hopelessly.

* * *

Mikoto's hands gripped around a rock that jutted out from a ledge. She pushed herself upwards and onto the flat surface of the cliff, managing to get onto a bit of stable ground, at least for a few moments, enough for her to catch her breath. Mikoto sighed heavily, wiping off dews of her sweat and tearing open her lunch bag to refresh herself with what's left of her sparkling water.

The Esper once again heard the quiet moaning of despair echoing through the air, and it acted much like a reminder of why she was there. The late afternoon sun slinked across the sky overhead and it started to settle back underneath the western edge of the sky, cooling the temperature a fair bit.

Mikoto huffed and allowed herself a moment of respite to catch her breath, staring up at the higher levels of the mountain. From her view, she could see another cliff extending outwards from a part of the mountain, but it was thick enough to comfortably walk across without any risk of it snapping off and plunging her right to her death.

Mikoto then gingerly got to her feet and put the almost empty bottle back to her paper bag. She hobbled towards the mostly verticle stone surface and primed herself to climb it, grabbing one stone ledge and another and started to hoist herself up the wall. Mikoto was secret grateful she was so athletic—it made the rock climb a lot less torturous than it actually was.

Finally, she climbed the last stone platform and tossed herself onto it. The Tokiwadai student found herself peering into a large, gaping opening in the side of the mountain, the size of a small truck lengthwise. Mikoto leaned in further, and found the opening lead into a large cavern that didn't look like it fitted in the mountain at first.

Multiple stalactites and stalagmites lined the ceiling and ground of the cavern respectively, and multiple thick, wooden vines snaked around the stone structure. The winds flowing from the pit of the cavern howled mournfully, but to Mikoto, it sounded like a predatory, labored breathing belonging to a monstrosity of unimaginable size.

Mikoto's breathing hitched slightly, and half of her mind was screaming at her to back out and climb down before something attack her. But that's not how she was, is she? Mikoto Misaka never runs away from her problem, and this will not be her first time running away.

Mikoto took one step forward and gazed forward at the deep extending cavern, transfixed by its haunting allure. She took another step forward.

Big mistake.

Before she could even blink, the next string of misfortune that hit her was so bad that even Touma Kamijou would wince in sympathy.

As Mikoto stepped forward, her foot snagged onto a particularly nasty tangle of vines that was obscured by shadows, throwing her off balance. At the same time, a sudden rush of wind blast down into the cavern, right at the back of her head, and it flung her forward right into the pit of the cavern.

It all happened so fast, Mikoto didn't even had a chance to react or scream.

As she tumbled down the cavern, multiple streams of thoughts ran through her head, but they all slammed into each other and mashed into semi-coherent sentences, such as would Kuroko ever gravitate towards weird buzzing mountains, or if Mikoto will ever grow from monster's mountain.

Mikoto fell down, and down, and down. And so begins the adventure of the Railgun in the Underground.

* * *

 **Jack's Notes:**

 **You might be thinking, 'Hey Jack, don't you have Jawbreaker is Unbreakable to get back to?'**

 **Well yeah, but this plot bunny just don't wanna stop interfering with my writing. More than twice I accidentally wrote in the early version of this document into the next chapter of JiU, so just to satiate my want of a A Certain Scientific Railgun/Undertale story, I wrote this thing up.**

 **And sorry if some parts of this looks kind shitty and unpolished; I was just hurrying to get this one out, so I didn't really have time to look over and proof read this one. Maybe when I have time, I'll come back around and remaster this one later.**

 **And don't worry, next chapter of Jawbreaker is Unbreakable is coming out soon, don't worry. Give me a few more days to write it up and it should be out. To sweeten the pot, the next chapter is the first half of a two parter, so watch out for that,**

 **Until next time, bye bye!**


End file.
